


An Important Birthday

by Waitlist



Category: Free!
Genre: Amusement Park, Fluff, Happy birthday Makoto!, M/M, birthday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 20:04:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2634497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waitlist/pseuds/Waitlist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today is one of the most important days of the year, in Haru's opinion. <br/>Luckily, he could leave most of the planning to Nagisa, and they'd celebrate Makoto's birthday together with a day out to Dreamland Theme Park.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Important Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday Makoto! <3

Haru had been counting down for about a month now. One of the most important days of the year needed a proper celebration, but Nagisa took care of that before he could start to think about it.Dressing up in something warm, Haru waited distractedly for Rei and Nagisa to arrive. The autumn chill made the idea of a warm bath very tempting...But there were more important matters at hand. Specifically, in his hands. Makoto’s birthday present. 

Nagisa had promised that they’d all share their presents in the morning at Makoto’s. Despite knowing him for so long, he had doubts. Would Makoto like his gift? Would he get embarrassed by everyone’s attention, and did he even want gifts? With a sigh, Haru put it out of his mind. He was sure Makoto would be happy with anything. 

Minutes later, there was a cheerful 5-beat knock at his door. 

“Haru! Are you ready to go? Did you buy Makoto a huge and expensive present?” Nagisa hopped in, bundled in a bright red coat. Rei followed behind him, lifting a bag full of smaller bags. 

“It’s not very big.” Haru answered, stepping aside and glancing at the gift bag. 

“Then it’ll fit right in here,” Rei said, opening the bag wider. Without wanting it to plague his mind anymore, Haru dropped the wrapped box in the bag.

Nagisa beamed. “Let’s go get Makoto. He’s probably had so much fuss from his family, and we need to save him!.

After the short walk from Haru’s house to Makoto’s, it turned out that Nagisa was right. Ran answered the door with confetti in her hair, squealing about Makoto’s friends coming to take Makoto away. They met enthusiastically with his parents, navigated the discarded gift wrap, then found Makoto sitting on the floor with his nose in a book and a paper hat on his head.

“Ah, Haru! Nagisa, Rei!” He stood up as soon as he heard them, dropping the book and hat, “Sorry I wasn’t more prepared. It’s been a big morning.”

“Happy birthday Makoto!” All three of them chorused. He returned a bright smile. 

“Thank you. I’ll get ready now, it won’t take 2 minutes.”

“We have gifts, Makoto! Open these before we go!” Nagisa promised.

The birthday boy returned, dressed in a green jumper and jeans, and had a bag pushed towards him by Ren. One by one, he opened his friend’s presents.

A smart-looking watch from Rei, a CD of seaside music compiled by Nagisa (as well as a gift card for the sportswear store), and a rope-thread friendship bracelet from Haru, with an orca woven into the pattern. With a grin, he slipped the watch and bracelet on to his wrist, pouring out his thanks and setting the cards on an ever-growing pile.

“C’mon, let’s go!” Nagisa encouraged everyone to leave, prying the twins from Makoto’s shoulders.

 

 

* * *

 

 

An hour and a half later, Haru, Makoto, Rei and Nagisa stood in the queue to Dreamland Amusement Park. The air was starting to get warmer, settling everyone’s doubts about the weather.

Rei held out a leaflet and map, and Nagisa was pointing out different rides.”This one is the ‘Electric Shock’; I’ve heard it spins you upside down three times! Oh, and the ‘Deep Diver’ is the water ride,” Haru’s eyes briefly gleamed, “But I think it’s closed for the cold seasons. Hey, there’s a haunted house here!”

Makoto laughed nervously, “The haunted house will probably have a large queue, and it might not be so good…”

“This one takes pictures of you as you drop, let’s get one of those!” Nagisa continued, bouncing on his toes. 

Once they reached the ticket booth, the vendor noticed Makoto’s small birthday badge. He explained that it was policy to give birthday visitors free passes, and a bigger badge. As much as he tried to decline the badge, Makoto accepted the pass, and wore the blue badge on his jacket.

Sometime after then, Rei created a game plan for the day. Rides, food, rides, gift shop, then one more ride. Everyone agreed on it after pouring over the map one more time. Of course, Makoto chose first.

“How about the photo one? I’d like to get a picture of all of us on a rollercoaster,” He suggested, figuring out the direction it was in. 

“Good choice!” Nagisa said, before Rei announced that he knew where they were going.

“Follow me, everyone!”

 

 

* * *

The resulting photo was definitely memorable. Each of them bought a postcard-sized copy, and now stood in a circle admiring it.

Nagisa, who had sat in the front, had his eyes close and his mouth wide open in a maniacal laugh. Beside him, Rei was so tightly on to his glasses that his eyes were hidden, but his mouth was also pulled into a mid-scream. 

The row above was where Haru and Makoto sat during the ride. Haru’s mouth wasn’t quite open, but his large eyes betrayed his fear like a book. Makoto looked even more frightened for his life, leaning half into Haru and yelling like Rei. The overall picture was frame-worthy.

“I’m going to keep this for a long time,” Makoto decided with a laugh. He laughed even more when Haru gripped his arm, apparently still feeling disorientated on his feet.

“You can’t see most of my face…” Rei peered closely at it. 

“It’s beautiful!” Nagisa said with a wink, pocketing the photo and pulling out the map, “Where next?”

The next few hours were consecutive queueing and riding. Next time they stopped was in a zombie-themed restaurant. However, their pause didn’t last long, because there was a ‘birds of prey’ show that they just had to see. All four of them travelled round the park at least twice, stopping at every attraction so they could win a fluffy toy or spin in the teacups (Haru’s second-favourite to the log flume.) The gift shop was small and expensive, but Makoto still treated them all to trinkets using his birthday money. 

By 5pm, the sky was starting to get darker and some of the rides were closing. Unfortunately for Makoto, Nagisa was very set on visiting the haunted house, especially in the dark. Even the queue had reduced to half the size.

“I’d much rather go on the, uh...Ferris Wheel! Yeah, that looks good,” Makoto suggested, nodding in the direction of the glowing wheel.

“Aw, but Mako…!” The blonde boy started, but Makoto sent an impressive pout, “All right then. Me and Rei will go in the haunted house, and you and Haru can go on the wheel!”

“That sounds good to me,” Haru quickly stated, unwilling to go into the haunted house. 

“Huh? I see…” Rei sighed, but then pointed a finger at Nagisa, “Nagisa, you aren’t allowed to jump on me!” 

“No promises, of course, Rei!” He beamed, linking their arms. 

“We should meet back at the gates afterwards,” Makoto said, checking his watch, “Have fun, you guys.”

The pairs went their separate ways, and Makoto and Haru soon arrived at the Ferris Wheel. The line was short, but the wheel took a while to make a full turn. 

“I didn’t think you liked Ferris Wheels so much either,” Haru said quietly, watching carefully as Makoto tilted his head in a guilty smile. 

“I guess not. A haunted house is last place I want to be in!”

Haru shared a small smile, their breath now coming out in wisps of fog. Several comfortably quiet moments went by.

“I bet you can see the whole town from the top,” Makoto was looking up at the early stars, “All the lights, and the sky.”

Haru said nothing; he could feel a blush warming the tips of his ears, hoping it would pass as just coldness. Makoto noticed.

“Are you cold, Haru? Did you bring a scarf?”

“I’m fine.” Instead of turning away as he would usually do, he smiled again. The concern visibly left Makoto’s expression, replaced with something that tinged his cheeks pink.

“Next please!” The vendor called, and the two arranged themselves in a double seat. With more than enough space, they still sat close together for the warmth. 

Slowly, the wheel turned metre by metre, leaving the world behind for Haru and Makoto. On the edge, the town became nothing more than a dark blanket decorated with tiny yellow lights. In the distance, Haru swore he could see the sea.

When he turned to the boy beside him, Makoto was still looking upwards. Clouds painted across the sky, stars peeking through the grey. Anywhere you looked was breathtaking, but Haru was staring at the little orca on Makoto’s wrist. 

“Makoto.” Haru caught his attention. He only hummed in response, looking down from the sky to the horizon. 

He wanted to say more. He wanted to say ‘happy birthday!’ without sounding cheesy, and he wanted to tell Makoto not to grow up too fast. He knew Makoto had been hearing these things all day, so they should be perfectly content in silence. Despite that, Haru felt like something was missing, and he started to fidget his hands on the carriage bar.

“Are your hands cold? Haru, they’re all white, do you have gloves?” 

“No, I didn’t bring them.”

“It’s okay,” Makoto smiled, “I brought a pair. Here, they have fluff on the inside—,”

“Your hands will be cold too.”

Makoto frowned slightly, and Haru couldn’t help looking away. His heart was beating loudly in his ears.

“Then we’ll share them.” 

Haru turned back to face his friend, and he was handed a single glove. 

“I’ll put this one on my left hand, that one is for your right hand, and we’ll go without our other ones,” Makoto answered his questioning look, as if it made the most sense.

“We can use each other’s hands,” Haru suggested softly, winding his fingers into Makoto’s. He squeezed his hand unconsciously. Now they both shared a red blush.

“A-alright, this works.” 

For the rest of the wheel ride, the boys were focussed on the feeling of joined hands to remember the scenery. Admittedly, Haru thought he was a genius, and both their hands were warm. They stepped off the ride, thanked the vendor, but didn’t release their fingers until Nagisa and Rei joined them at the gate.

“Wow, that was so fun! Rei screamed more than I did!” Nagisa laughed during his recount of the haunted house.

Rei quickly tried to justify himself, “That vampire man touched my hair!”

“How was the Ferris Wheel? Did you see a lot?”

“Yes! You could see for miles. Right, Haru?” Makoto nudged him gently.

“I think I saw the sea from up there.”

“How cool! We’ll go up there next time, okay Rei?” Nagisa promised, “We have to go before they lock us in!”

The four of them walked down towards to exit, buzzing from the exciting day. Haru noticed that Rei had glanced at his and Makoto’s half-gloved hands, but didn't mention anything.

Back at Iwatobi, Makoto and Haru joined hands once more before splitting off to their homes. It was only when Haru took off his coat, he realised he still had Makoto’s other glove. Pulling out his phone, he typed a quick text.

<Haru: ‘i still have your right glove.’

Seconds later, a reply lit up his screen and a smile on his face.

>Makoto: ‘i’ll be right over.’

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! let me know if you spot any mistakes anywhere~


End file.
